Lufthansa will temporarily decommission the entire Airbus A340-600 fleet.
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| Lufthansa Airbus A340's heading to rest under the Spanish sun. Photo Lufthansa |
The German carrier Lufthansa has confirmed that it will decommission its entire fleet of Airbus A340-600 aircraft - at least for a little while. It has already been flown three of this four-engined long-haul beauties to Teruel, in northeastern Spain. Teruel Airport is located between Zaragoza and Valencia in the northeast of Spain. With around 240 days of sunshine a year and little rainfall, the region is particularly suitable for sending aircraft that are temporarily surplus to requirements. It is also a lot cheaper to park large aircraft there than almost all German or other local airports. Plus, there is a maintenance base there which can easily send these aircraft off to sleep and awaken them again when needed.
Lufthansa plans to transfer the entire A340-600 fleet, equaling 17 aircraft, to Teruel where they will be decommissioned over the next 2-3 months. These aircraft, the airline estimates will not be operating within its regular scheduled services for at least the next one to one and a half years.
A decision on the future use of the aircraft or a possible reactivation of a maximum of ten aircraft will be taken at a later stage in time.
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| Photo Lufthansa |
With the current coronavirus COVID-19 crisis continuing and whilst there has been a limited relaxation of lockdown rules in some countries, Europe doesn't seem likely of lifting international travel bans any time soon. Whether there will be a massive bounce back to pre-COVID traffic levels in a short space of time remains to be seen, most serious analysts, however, are anticipating a long and slow return to the skies for many passengers - some even predicting it could take until 2029 for air traffic to get back to the same sorts of levels. I don't expect those A340s flying in Lufthansa colours again - unless it is to the paint shop having been sold to other carriers or, most likely to the scrap merchants. A reprieve for these big birds might be if they go back to the manufacturer, although by that stage Airbus will be awash with surplus aircraft!
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| Lufthansa A340 arriving in Teruel Airport for storage Photo Aeropuerto de Teruel |
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| Lufthansa A340 arriving in Teruel Airport for storage Photo Aeropuerto de Teruel |
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